Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

WARP: The Hangman's Revolution

When agent Chevie Savano comes come home after her time travels to Victorian London, she fully expects her world in twenty-first century London to be as it was when she left. It is not. It has changed beyond all recognition and Chevie immediately forgets her original timeline and adopts the new one. For a while she honestly believes that she has been living in the Boxite Empire all her life, and thinks she is a cadet who is loyal to the oppressive regime that controls almost the entire world.

What she does not know is that the Boxite Empire was created by an American called Colonel Box who used Professor Charles Smart’s time travel technology to change world history so that his philosophies would become the new world order. The professor tried to prevent this from happening but did not manage to stop Colonel Box who, with a team of skilled military men, used twenty-first century technology and know-how to take over the world during Queen Victoria’s reign.

When Chevie, in her new Boxite Empire timeline, is given the job of killing Professor Charles Smart she cannot do it. Something in her, a little voice, tells here that everything about the Boxite Empire is wrong and that killing a defenseless old man is not acceptable. The two Boxite agents who are with Chevie try to force her to do as she is told and then one of them shoots the professor, who, before he dies, manages to send Chevie and the two agents back to Victorian London and the day before Colonel Box and his forces strike. Colonel Box has been getting ready for this moment for decades and now the time has come for him to make his move.

Chevie knows that Colonel Box has to be stopped so she seeks out Riley, the boy she met in Victorian London the last time she was there. When she finds the boy he has just seen London’s biggest criminal kingpin, Otto Malarkey, attacked by one of his own people, a man called Mr. Farley. Malarkey’s strongest supporters, including his brother, are all dead.

Even though Malarkey has, on occasion, made Riley and Chevie’s lives more than a little uncomfortable, they cannot leave the man to die and get him home so that he can be cared for. They realize that Farley has been working undercover for Colonel Box all this time and that he plans on taking over Malarkey’s criminal organization to provide Colonel Box with the foot soldiers he needs to make his coup a success. Somehow, though they are hopelessly outnumbered, Riley, Chevie, Malarkey and Malarkey’s Irish butler have to save the world from Colonel Box before it is too late.

In this second W.A.R.P title Eoin Colfer once again takes us on a journey into the past and this time our task is to save the future. Listeners will find it impossible to set aside the spirited recording once they have started listening, and will find themselves fervently hoping that Chevie, Riley and their allies will be able to prevail even though the odds are most certainly not in their favor.